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Sunday, 6 July 2014

Almost two months
ago I was intimated with the plans for a wedding and at the same time invited.
I accepted the invitation, noting the date and kept it at the back of my mind.

Then a month ago,
we had another conversation where I got a better idea of the plans and at that
time I decided to book both my flight and hotel as we were chatting.

Now, I have to be
quite attentive to my booking regime because I cannot count the number of times
I have had a hotel and flight booking mismatch or just got my return dates
wrong because of the way calendar months are presented when booking.

At times, I’ll
spend extra to have the option to review, reschedule, rebook or cancel, and that
came in handy for when I booked my hotel.

Irelands

I have never been
to Ireland, in fact, I have never been to any of the Irelands, those being
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

However, I do
remember when I was about to be sent to solve a problem in Belfast in the 1990s
and I just refused to go. The office was above a police station and this was
during the troubles.

I said to them,
there are places where being in close proximity to a police station would
present a sense of safety, but I was not going to risk that in Belfast. No sooner had I
refused to travel to Belfast did I experience the IRA bombing in
Manchester where not even 10 yards from where I stood, shards of glass fell
on a man. Those were crazy times.

Last year when I
was working in North Wales, I could have taken the opportunity to travel from Holyhead to Dublin by ferry, I considered it many times but never found time to plan it. Dublin, here I come.

Eerie bookings

I booked my hotel,
it looked like a bargain; in the centre of town and easy to get around until I
had another look at the map and saw it backed unto a garden of remembrance.

Memorials are great
and I celebrate them, but I know how my imagination can run away with such
vividness that I could begin to see things. There are some things I do not want
to see either by error or by commission; that realisation had me cancelling
that booking almost before the confirmation email settled in my email inbox.
Good thing I chose the cancellation option.

Besides, I need to
follow my deepest premonitions more, because there have been times when
something has suggested I take a particular action that later on I regret I
have not done. Yet, I cannot beat myself up, I just hope that next time I am
more sensitive.

Listlessly wireless

My usual booking site did not present any betters
deals for the weekend I wanted to visit Dublin, so I tried LateRooms and that came up with a really
good deal, I stayed at Wynn’s
Hotel for 3 nights, the staff were friendly, the room was good, though the
complimentary wireless internet service almost left me wanting to do the
unconventional.

In the end, it was
3 nights in Dublin, but I must return because I did not get to see much of this
amazing city which at only time in its history was second only to London in the
British Isles.

Flight from fright

There are two
airlines I would not board if they were the last escape from a dying earth, EasyJet and RyanAir, they have both for the
no-frills and cheap flights they offer to places that would never appear on a
decent map of civilisation taken the fun out of flying and in the process
dragged everyone else down with them.

Gone are the days
when not even 20 years ago you got a decent silver service for an hour’s flight
in economy class. Now, one just makes do with a drink and sometimes you have to
pay for that drink.

I’ll rather have
stop-overs than take a direct flight, thankfully, Aer Lingus flies direct to
Dublin from Manchester, though when I departed on Thursday evening, my flight
lingered in late and left 45 minutes behind schedule.

The service was
good enough and as I await boarding for my return to Manchester, the experience
has been fun.

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I have many stories to tell, I am English of Nigerian parentage, I lived in the Netherlands for 12 years, returned to the UK recently but still have wander lust - the rest is somewhere online, most likely in on blogs.